October 2021
Hello Fit Chick Movement Members!
Yes, this is where you are supposed to be! Your weekly email is posted below! Your weekly emails will be posted here moving forward so if you want to go back to them, click the link that was sent to you and you can find your emails for the month, listed here. As a reminder, here is what we as members are committed to …
“I am ready to engage, participate and inspire. I will read emails and respond to questions posed. I'll ask questions and play the fun challenges. Finally, I will pay it forward and share my successes and struggles with other women in FCM.” Please be sure to leave a comment and like a comment …
Week of October 24, 2021
Hello Ladies!
Guess what I found?! This is a recording of the 5 Keystones to Feeling Healthy, Happy and Strong.
What is a Keystone Habit you ask?
Keystone Habits are the routines and practices by which we operate. They mark the base level of what we do without the need for willpower. Weather positive or negative, each of these habits has a RIPPLE EFFECT across everything you do in life.
I’m still thinking about the theme of finishing the year strong and putting some things in place from planning strategies for getting through Halloween without going into a sugar coma to strategies for managing the holidays (more to come on that).
So in keeping with strategies and plans for finishing the year strong and getting a running start into the new year, this weeks support, knowledge and inspiration comes from this video. Yep, I’m switching it up, no reading involved this week … just hit play and listen! Take all of it in. Take some of it in. If you take any piece of this to heart and practice it, it will be a win! Progress not perfection.
5 Keystones to Feeling Healthy, Happy & Strong - YouTube
Have a great week! Please share your wins, your challenges and thoughts in the comments section!
Brave not perfect,
Caroline Johnson, Fit Chicks Movement, Community Manager
Week of October 17, 2021
Hello Ladies!
I hope you were able to enjoy the lovely fall weather this weekend! I wasn’t able to get out much this weekend but I had a nice drive on Saturday afternoon to the studio. Fit Chicks! Studio had a clinic and I was grateful for the drive there, for the sunshine, and the time spent connecting with women in the studio who are continuing to learn new ways to care for their bodies. Sunday I made a quick trip to the store and dropped by a friend’s to take her something, then dropped off a gift for my niece who will be turning 17! I was happy that I was able to enjoy being out of the house for a little while. I was happy to be able to enjoy the sun, my sunroof and a book that I was listening to on Audible called You are Your Best Thing. If you are thinking … “nerdy” or “how boring”, that’s okay. I am good with accepting my nerdiness and those things were not boring for this weekend. It was just enough for me this weekend and just what I needed. The other thing that I was able to do is get a lot of rest and sleep, which is the other thing that I needed. In fact, I rearranged my schedule some to allow me to get more of what I needed this weekend.
Anyway, Halloween is right around the corner and I’m thinking of all of the candy and sugar that will be entering our lives over the next two weeks. I was talking to my daughter and asking her how she plans to deal with the next 2 weeks and the excess candy and sugar headed our way. She’s a teacher’s assistant. She said, that she plans to choose healthier sweet options that she is making for herself, and will back them in her lunch so that she can have a sweet treat and not feel like she is missing out. I thought that was a wonderful idea!! Another idea that came to us while we were talking was not to deprive yourself of the Halloween treats, but instead, limit and contain the amount of the treat. Maybe it’s one small piece of candy a day for two weeks.
What are ways that you have learned to enjoy Halloween treats without depriving yourself entirely? Please share your thoughts and ideas in the comments with other women in the community! Other women would love to hear from you and I would too!!
Also, please read this link and learn more about how sugar affects us. This is a reminder that I need regularly because we can make somethings easy to ”not think about.”
How Does Too Much Sugar Affect Your Body? (webmd.com)
This week, while you are outside or in your car, drive in silence or just be still for a little while and pay attention to what you notice … what feels good, what you are grateful for, who you are grateful for or what you appreciate in or about your life. You can share that too in the comments if you like.
Have a great week!! Love you ladies!!
Brave not perfect,
Caroline Johnson, Fit Chicks Movement, Community Manager
Week of October 10, 2021
Hello Ladies!
How was your week?
Have you given any thought to what has your attention these days? Have you thought about a plan for how you want to finish 2021 and give yourself momentum for going into 2022?
The Fit Chick Studio ladies are off to a great start chasing stars for the Love Your Body Challenge! Being a part of this group of ladies makes it hard to not want to participate! There is a lot of cheering each other on. But I am certain it will be a mad dash and a close race to the end for some of these women. #cutthroat! #fighttothefinish!
I am cheering for all of these ladies as they work to hit 40 workouts in 60 days!
I am cheering for all of you who are working toward your goals and those of you who are still struggling to set them or to get moving. To everyone, keep at it! Keep going!
Nikola, I’m giving you a shout out! I love your plan! You are temporarily not able to work out. What you DID NOT do is say, oh well, I’m not working out so might as well not worry about any of my other healthy habits. You are focusing in on you and taking care of you in the ways that you can, and in ways that are equally as important!! Woooo Hoooo!! Thank you for sharing your plan!
Ladies, keep going, report on your plans. It can be one thing that you want to do to benefit your health through the rest of the year.
Please keep sharing in the comments below.
Also, here is an article from WebMD. Please read it.
https://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/ss/twelve-habits-super-healthy-people
How many of these 12 things can you say you do - not perfectly - but regularly? Is there something on this list that will be your plan for carrying you through to the end of the year. Please share in the comment section below. We are not shooting for perfection … we are shooting for progress.
Just keep going. Love you ladies.
Brave not perfect,
Caroline Johnson
Week of October 3, 2021
Hello Ladies!
The seasons are changing. Kids are back into the swing of their school schedules. New college students are living away from home for the first time. Some of us have new teenage drivers and new kindergartners. We are developing new business models and continue to work differently. We are continuing to adjust to the new normal that continues to be somewhat of a moving target these days.
What has your attention right now? What are you wondering about?
I am wondering if students will be able to make it through the school year still being able to enjoy the things that are supposed to be fun, still being able to benefit by socializing in a healthy fashion and being able to create school memories and experience school milestones with a school setting. For children in schools that are not well funded, I am wondering if they will simply be able to stay in school for the full school year not only for their education, but for some, so that they can have consistent meals at least during the week days.
With all that is going on, is your focus on you also? How will you finish the year?
I am thinking about myself and how I want to finish the year and maneuver through the holidays, through fatigue, and every other challenge real or imagined that may trip us up. I want to have something in place to keep me moving toward my goal of staying healthy and maintaining a weight loss during the last months of the year. I want to have developed a plan and speak it to someone or the group for accountability to myself.
There are 80 ladies in Fit Chicks! Studio who have committed to doing a Love Your Body Challenge TOGETHER. And I am super excited for them!!! This is a challenge where for 60 days, starting on October 1st, they will be working to complete 40 workouts in 60 days (at least 30 mins each). These ladies in the studio are hyped and I for one will be cheering them on!
I will be cheering you on as well!!
Here’s what I want to focus on to carry me through the end of the year. I have decided that I want to have 4 cornerstones that will help keep me directionally correct in my goal of finishing the year focused, strong and continuing moving toward sustaining my weight loss. I’ve decided those 4 cornerstones will be.
Tracking the food I eat and the calorie intake daily
Drink 100 ounces of water daily
Breakfast will be either a protein shake, boiled egg or a breakfast salad
I will slow down my eating, and each meal will take me at a minimum 20 minutes to complete (Yep, I finish eating most times under 20 minutes.)
These are the things that if I do them well or even fairly well through the end of the year, my goals will be on track and in the right direction as I move into my focus to start the new year.
Whether it’s about getting stronger, maintaining your strength, losing weight or maintaining a weight loss, it is a life long journey that requires focus and refocus, steps and more steps, tools like games and challenges to help with motivation and drive, and people who are on the journey with you sharing successes and struggles.
What will you contemplate in the next week or so around how you want to end the year? Can you agree to let go of beating yourself up for anything you did not accomplish previously this year, because it serves no good purpose? Will you set a challenge? Will you play along side the ladies in the studio in the Love Your Body Challenge or in your own challenge? Will you set some cornerstones to keep your focus and keep you moving in the direction you want to go?
Please share in the comments.
It’s so important for women to hear each others shares whether it’s a share of struggles or a share of success … it matters more than you know.
Wishing the FCM Ladies and the Love YOUR Body competitors the will, the grit, the partner in crime that makes them laugh and supports them along the way, and the heart to keep going!!! Love you ladies
Brave not perfect
Caroline Johnson, Community Manager, Fit Chicks Movement